hill-op h uls -pr



' F. OPHULS.

METHOD OF ICE MANUFACTURE. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 11. ms. RENEWED OCT.26.1915.

1,195,495. Patented Aug. 22, 1916.

Wafer fupp/y Lima 7 I Pecepfa c/e pre een srA'rEs PATENT earn: 1

mm, ori zorlsyor' NEW'YOBK" n ASSIGNOB "ro HILL-OPHULS'-PRINDLE 0on2, or

- new YORK, N Y. a CORPORATION or NEW YORK.

' I I 'METHOD OF ICE MANUFACTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent. 4

Patented Ain't 22, 1 9 1 6.

,-Applicaition filed November u, 1913, Serial No. 500.268. RenewedOctober26319 18. seriarmfsgcro.

To all we)? it may concern! Beit'knon'n that l., Fi-Ilh CrnULs, a(Hillzen of the United States residing at din) Leno); road, borough ofBrooklyn, city and State of New York, have invented the followingdescrihcil Improvements in'Mcthods I of Ice lt'll'an'ufactnre of ivhichthe following is a full, true, and complete specification.

The invention provides a method of manufacturing marketable ice, eitherfrom distilled or raw Water more quiclglyfaml elli cicntly thanheretofore. The method COlllPlQ- hands the artificial froezingof amixture or slush,,of ice particles and water, which m xture is producedcontinuously or otherwise .in such relative pmportions of solid andliquid as mayhelfound most efficient for the pur in hand, andhereinafter set fOl'lJL v L, n In the accompanying, dra wing ulqgure 1 Ihareindicated in simple diagram an arrangementof apparatus adapted tocarry '-'on the said method, ;1t 5 be ng, understood howcrer that othertypesof apparatus may be used to; produce thesame results. I Figsuitable type of wster-ooolenfr In using the apparatus shown, the iceslush, or mixture or ice particles and water, is produced byfirstpassing water, raw or distilledthrough a cooler 1, in i'vhiclritiscooled, while in n'iotion, to a temperature 2 represents moreor'.:,lessl schematically it below its freezing point, sayQG", Fahr.{This Water cooler may of any designsuitcd to cool 'Water rapidly andcontinuously withvout permittii lg it toireezc in the cooler orw'vhilcin transit through it. A film water C(mler is suitable for the purposeprovided the water ispassed through it under such.

Conditions as to prevent-the formationof an ice film onthe interior ofits water-con; ducting passages, and it isdesirable in any event to keepthe stream of water passing through the cooler undcr'sufllcientcominotion to insure that practically allot it comes in contact with thewalls of the passages, so that the cooling will be homogeneous. As ituseful means for thc purpose, l have found that longitudinally twistedstrips of flat metal l in the pipes of a coil cooler scrre to 1lstribnte the water passing tlierethrough in such a Way that it emergeshomogeneously cool+.:ol. The refrigerating medium for the cooler isrepresented as circulating through the same by Way of the I itihj ch Iis jacketed with heat-insulating 'terial and dividedby a p'artit'ion fiinto two ''compa'rtments. "The pipe klclircrs pipes marked 2, andsuirhincdium m he a brine solution or a refrigerant'p'rod'iucorltherefrom is below the; freezing point. At-

the same time itshould'he' understood that the temperaturc'of the Wateris 'ahovc that critical pointat' which, under the co'inlitions which arepeculiar to the particular apparatusfit will spontaneously flash into{xi-5'stels. 'According to the physical characteristics of the apparatuse'mploycd; a tempera ture of say 30? For even 20 F. can licmaintainedwithout flashing; "lhrcooled ,water is conducted byfa'pi'pe' 3 toa tankthe cooled water from'thc water cooler into the smallerofthecompartmerits,' from which it overflows intolth'elarger'com'partiiient and from thence is .ilraii'n-ofihy'the circulatingplimp' fi remniledtq th ecooler; :icircu- 'lation of cooled'irater.being thus. established.

' The cooled irater'entcrlng the first coin partmerit, and being alreadybelo'w32 F, is

allowed to crystallize or freeze therein, the

,crystallization being inducd in the first 'in stance by the contactwith tlie'tyatcnof a. piece of ice placed in it' for the'pnrposr, or

otherwise, 'and When once started is con tinuous. The icc'crystalsformafine-grained slushwhich overfloivs' into the second (Om'partmcntwherc it tends to mass near the siu'fac'e, whilesolid:iinpuritics'tcnd to scttlc toward the bottom: A' fine sievcorstrainer in'the large compartment and at a spili- I c ient distancebelow the required lereh serves to ohstruct the passage of the-crystalsto the pump, while the connections 8' from the bottoms of bothcompartments serve to drain away the scttlings. The slush accumulatingin the larger compartment is conducted under its own head, or otherwise.hroug'h a pipe 9 and deposited in the can lil'orother receptacle inWllifili lll is to he frozen, and Where it will freeze into dcns'e o earc with greater or less cclcrity according to the proportion of icecrystals it contains. a larger proportion forming into solid icecorrespondingly quicker than a smaller proportion. The appropriatethiclmess of the is slush can be readily determined in each caseaccording to the results desired, andcan be controlled by regulating thedistance of the pipe connection 9 below the level in the'slush. tank, orotherwise, as will be obvious.

It is within the invention to form the slush either with the water fromwhich the crystals have been formed, that is, with their own water, or.to substitute .fresh water therefor. The individual ice crystals will,of course, be pure and free from imprisoned solids but it may sometimesbe de sirable torinsethem in fresh or distilled water prior to theirintroduction to the frcezin receptacle. This is especially the case w enthe crystals areformed Q raw water. The agitation in the smallercompartment tends to prevent attachmeht of foreign'matter to thecrystals and the settling allowed in the larger compartment tendsfurther to facilitate the separation of dirt and the production of slushwhich is relatively pure water, but when such-cleans ing operations arenot of themselves sufiicicnt, as likely to bathe case with raw alas itank.

water, the crystals may be subjected to a supplementary rinsing afterthey leave the his may be accomplished in a variety of ways, eithercontinuously or in termittently as desired. For purpose of illustration,the part marked 11 in the dia-' gram may be assumed to 'be' a rinsingapparatus suitable for-the purpose and into which the mass of crystals,as thick as possible, isintroduced while asupply-of dis tilled water,cooled to 32 is forced through it from a pipe 12, after which the slushis allowed to pass on through the pipe 9 to the freezing receptacle,together with such.

proportion of the distilled rinsing water as may be necessary ordesired. The same oporation may obviously be carried on continuously, asfor example by mechanically advancing the crystal mass in a worm-comveyer and against a oounter-current of the distilled, cooled rinsingwater.v Any suitable refrigerating medium can be employed forfreezing-the slush in the cans 10, the same as that used for the cooler,or otherwise. The water abstracted from the circulation system in the.form of ice crystals or slush is made up from a supply pipe 13connectedwith the intake of the circulatiiw pump and controlled by aregulator, suc i as the ball-float valve indicated in the dia- The levelin theslush tank is thus gram. maintained constant. The type ofwater-cooler ill ustratod in Fig. 2, comprises aninner water pipe 13,containing the twisted metal strips referred to and coiled or looped inany desired number of limbs, indicated by the dotted line. This pipe issurrounded by an exterior pipe 14 for the brine or other. refrigerant,the

latter enterin the said pipe at the end adjacent the out et of the waterpipe and leavmg adjacent the water inlet. The process is in no senseconfined to the use of apparatus such asjust described and any suitablemeans can be employed for supercooling the water. Nor is there anylimitation upon the invention in respect to the manner of artificiallyfreezing the water and crystals. a

I claimi I 1. The methodot making ice which consists in cooling water toa temperature. of I less than 3 F. without freezing it, thereafmg to thecooler, and subjecting such crystalsin water to a freezing temperatureto form a solid cake ofioe therefrom.

3. The method of making icewhich con'- sists .in continuouslycirculating water through a water colil'er and a crystal-formingreceptacle, cooling the water passing through the cooler to elow 32 F.without freezing, inducin or permitting the formation of ice crystal sin the super-cooled water in the receptacle, separating the greater partof the water from such crystals for returnlto the cooler, adding morewater .to

such separated water and then subjecting the said crystals in water to afrerzing temperature to form a Sulltl rake of ice tborcfrou'i.

.ln testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in thepresence-of two Wltncsscs.

' FRED ()lIll LS.

\Vitnesses:

(ll-1o. Eamo'rr lA'rrnusoN, \V 1 nm a M .lhm N'N.

